


Tony Stark and the Multidimensional Matchmaking

by ashes0909



Series: Tony Stark and the Pining Professors [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Crossover, Established Relationship, Getting Together, Harry Potter!Steve Rogers, Harry Potter!Tony Stark, Jealous Steve Rogers, M/M, MCU!Tony Stark, Magic, Matchmaking, Multiverse, Mutual Pining, Pining Professors, Protective Tony Stark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23162044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashes0909/pseuds/ashes0909
Summary: With no other plan in mind, Tony broke from the trees and headed for the castle. No one stopped him, though the kids on the other side of the lake looked up at him, waved, then returned to their game. He waved back, his hand feeling as surreal and confused as the rest of him. The castle only grew as he approached, and he lifted his head as its foreboding stone cut off the sky. The doors were nearly three stories high, but Tony pushed them open easily, far easier than he expected.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Tony Stark and the Pining Professors [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1715476
Comments: 183
Kudos: 186
Collections: Tony Stark Bingo 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is for my TonyStarkBingo S2 square: Science and Magic. I don't have a posting schedule setup, but I plan to update throughout the next few weeks. I hope it helps keep you entertained during these trying times. Thank you so much Ferret for the beta!

Tony spun the ring between his fingers. The deep, dark garnet stone, framed in bright gold, glinted in the light. They were his colors, but they looked foreign on the jewelry. He focused on its engraving - a triangle, circle in the middle of it with a line cutting vertically through it, the top point to the center of the base. It was beautiful, even with the jagged crack someone stabbed into the very center of it.

Steve had told him to take it straight to Strange; that just made Tony want to keep it and poke at it even more. When he told Steve as much, Tony watched him fight the urge to roll his eyes but he was unable to hold back the flicker of amusement at the corners of his mouth. 

“Magical artifacts from other dimensions coming face to face with my exquisite science, what could go wrong?”

“Why must you ask that?” Steve had groaned. Tony just winked at him, pressed a brief kiss to his lips and sashayed his way to the elevator. 

Now, Tony dragged his finger along the smooth sides of the gem stone then moved to trace over the laceration. The roughened stone scratched the pad of his thumb. It had a hum of residual energy, yet every scan he ran proved this observation incorrect. Another drag of his finger and this time it caught against his skin, poking quick and sharp, and a drop of blood beaded on his thumbpad. 

Tony hissed, pulling his hand back. His blood moved, spreading onto the gem, pooling into the slice that cut across its black-red surface. The ring heated and hummed some more, the energy no scans could detect only increasing in force. It shook and shook until it shot out of Tony’s hand and onto the workstation. The ring spun, clanking against the metal, and Tony took a step back, then another. 

Between one breath and the next a beam of light shot out from the gemstone. For a moment, it was straight ahead, but then it vibrated and swung directly towards Tony. He barely had time to shout before the beam slammed into his chest. Tony felt his feet swipe out from under him but instead of hitting the ground he flew backwards. He braced, waiting for the impact of the wall but instead he kept flying, nothing but black-red light consuming him entirely. 

~~~

Tony floated in absolute nothingness before slamming into a force field, then he bounced again and again, and again, before landing on rough ground, grass under his hands and a tree trunk colliding with the back of his head. “Fuck!” Tony groaned, multi-colored sparks lighting the back of his eyelids. He felt underwater, wrong-side-right, disorientated, even the air tasted different when he finally managed a breath. 

Forcing his eyes open, he could tell right away he was in a forest. The trees were thick and varied, beech, oak, pine, and sycamore all around him. As he looked around, he realized he sat towards the edge of the forest, a large field peeking ahead of him between the trees. The wind picked up, a piercing shriek that Tony realized wasn’t the wind at all but a scream coming from above him. He shuffled to his feet, moving towards the sound instead of away like he could hear Steve in his mind ordering him to do so. But this wasn’t the battlefield--at least, he didn’t think it was...he crouched low as he got to the treeline, wishing desperately he had more in his possession than just a ring. Maybe if he focused on working on the nano-suit instead of tinkering with magic artifacts. 

There was a beat of silence before another shout, this time by a group of people, but it seemed to originate from up in the sky, not on ground level. Before Tony could clear his mind of the confusion three people on honest to god broomsticks shot across the sky. He blinked once, twice, then reached behind his head to feel for any cracks in his skull. The broomsticks came back, this time with one rider holding a ball. He threw it out of Tony’s line of sight and there was another boom of shouting. Then a man, blond hair poking out from under his helmet, flew fast from behind them, blowing a whistle from atop a broomstick of his own.

A...sporting event? 

Yeah. He definitely had a concussion. 

Since it seemed in both his reality and his own hallucinations there were no threats, Tony started to walk along the treeline. He let the shouting fade behind him, heading towards the sound of splashing water. Maybe he could follow a river to something that made any sort of sense. 

As he walked, he thought he heard all sorts of sounds: the faint trotting of horse hooves, the scattering of spider legs against leaves, trees moving without wind as if they were in the middle of a conversation. A chill ran down his spine, feeling eyes from every direction pinned on him, but every time he looked over his shoulder, he was alone. 

The water was a lake, calm and still except for the group of cape-clad children playing along the shore of the far end. He’d focused on the capes, but his mind was still trying to process the sight of the castle behind the lake. It reached so high it blocked the sun and it seemed like it had more towers than he could count. Near the lake, he could see a hut surrounded by a pumpkin patch, and it was the sight of huge pumpkins in what was supposed to be midsummer that made Tony start to laugh uncontrollably. 

With no other plan in mind, he broke from the trees and headed for the castle. No one stopped him, though the kids on the other side of the lake looked up at him, waved, then returned to their game. He waved back, his hand feeling as surreal and confused as the rest of him. The castle only grew as he approached, and he lifted his head as its foreboding stone cut off the sky. The doors were nearly three stories high, but Tony pushed them open easily, far easier than he expected. 

The inner foyer was empty, but there were signs of life coming from hallways and what appeared to be a great hall towards his left. Tony turned right, and found a narrow hallway with a small staircase that he took up to the second floor, halfway up it the staircase started to vibrate and move. Tony froze, hand gripping the railing hard until the stairs connected to another hallway and stopped moving entirely. 

Tony took a deep breath and wished desperately for his armor, but at least this area was even more isolated. He walked down the hallway until it broke off with one path continuing straight and the other going left, he turned the corner left and slammed right into another caped individual, this one an adult, who had been more focused on the book in his hands than his own path. 

But when he looked up at Tony his book was promptly forgotten. The man dropped his jaw, looking just as surprised as Tony felt, to be face to face with the mirror image of himself.


	2. Chapter 2

It was like time froze while his mind ramped up to triple speed. He’d hit his head, the students waving at him, the hum of the ring in his hands. Magic. Concussion. Disturbingly familiar disturbed eyes, wide and piercing with shock and question. 

Then the man’s hand shot out, the impractical cape everyone seemed to be wearing lifting, to pull Tony through a stone framed doorway. The man’s hand gripped Tony’s shoulder hard, fingers pressing into his skin, and he held a polished, wooden stick with a carved handle to the center of Tony’s forehead. 

“What the hell!” Tony shouted, trying to shove away from the man’s grip. 

The man’s hold only tightened. _“Expelliarmus!”_ he shouted. Nothing happened and the man wearing Tony’s own face narrowed Tony’s own eyes. _“Specialis Revelio.”_ The man paused again, like he was waiting for something to happen and that’s when Tony found his tongue.

“What the hell is this? Who are you? Why are you wearing my face? Where the hell am I? Why are you shouting at me in convoluted Latin?”

_“Reparifarge!”_

“Do you speak English?”

The stranger snorted then turned the stick towards the door. _“Colloportus.”_ The door swung shut and locked with a squelching noise. 

Tony took one look at the stick and then at the door, then back to the stick, then the door. 

“You’re a muggle.” The man’s tone bore no question, instead he crossed his arms and fixed Tony with a stare. “The _Repello_ should’ve worked on you.”

“So you _do_ speak English, even if it’s just every other word.”

“And you’re American.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to hit below the belt, but you started it, Posh Spice.”

“What?”

 _“...you gotta get with my friends_ ,” Tony sang, because none of this made any sort of sense, so why filter the song that fluttered through his mind. 

“I’m sorry, did you hit your head?”

“Yes!” Tony snapped his fingers, pushing away from the entryway to walk around what appeared to be a classroom, with rows of desks facing a large one at the front end of the room. “Woke up against a tree. Definitely, maybe, passed out? Wizard of Oz style, that’s always an option. But no--”

“What are you--?”

“This doesn’t seem like Kansas.”

The man stepped forward. “Kansas?” 

Tony held up his hand, thinking. “Something is about to click, I can sense--yes!” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ring. “This belongs to you. Your world. It must! Magic? Concussion? Nope! Multiverse--!”

“Well--” the man straightened, taking a step closer, eyes fixed to Tony’s hand “--there is magic, it exists....” he whispered the words like they were an afterthought, hand reaching out for the ring. “Where did you…?”

Tony felt the thrill of satisfaction run through him. “So you _do_ know this ring!” 

“Everyone in the Magical World knows this ring, it's one of He-Who--of Voldemort’s--it’s one of his horcruxes. The Deathly Hallows symbol is engraved across the gemstone.” The man had gone completely white and fixed Tony with an expression that spoke of fear, of horrors of days past that were routinely recalled in his mind’s eye. “Who are you?”

“Tony Stark. Who are you?”

“Anthony Stark, Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.”

“Well if we’re going to do the whole title thing: Tony Stark aka Iron Man, aka genius, playboy--”

“Irrelevant,” the other him snapped, sounding as expertly dismissive as Tony himself managed. He pointed to Tony’s hand. “The ring. How did it come to be in your possession? I had the honor of examining it and two other horcruxes a few years ago...” 

Tony spun the ring on the desk closest to him. “It’s weird hearing that accent out of my own mouth.”

“Trust me, I’m experiencing a similar surreal sensation. Is there a reason you’re not answering my question?”

“No,” Tony replied, closing his fist around the ring and watching the man wearing his face, this other version of him that went by Anthony, keep his gaze on Tony’s hand before his eyes shuddered closed. Tony continued, “But I’m starting to gather that this ring is more than it appears. A Horca--Horcru--”

“Horcrux.” Anthony must have seen the confusion on his face. “It held a piece of a man’s soul. A horrible, evil man,” he clarified simply, but the words left a heavy weight on his shoulders, sunk him down so he perched on one of the desks across from Tony. 

Tony dropped the ring like it was on fire. The humming he’d felt earlier still echoing through his palm. “We found it during a mission in New York. It was just a few days ago, at least in my neck of the multiverse. Almost smacked me in the back of the helmet, if Steve hadn’t caught it first. It was going fast, just like everything else that was shooting out of that portal.”

“Is that what brought you here?” Anthony’s brow furrowed, so similar to his own when he was deep in thought. “The portal?”

Tony shook his head. “The ring. Steve had told me to take it to Strange, but I had to poke it. I always have to poke. I was just looking at it and it came to life almost--You said it had a piece of a soul?”

“ _Had_ ,” Anthony assured. “It’s gone now.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” 

“So then how did it come to life--oh. My blood. I cut myself on it and it came to life right after it.”

“Maybe it--?” Anthony began.

“Do you think possibly--?” The pieces started to fall together. 

“It linked you to me?” 

“It connected us.”

Tony looked up at Anthony. “I guess it really wanted to return home? E.T style.”

“Excuse me?” Anthony looked at him like he was insane. “It doesn’t belong to me.”

“But it belongs to your world. And now it’s back. And I'm here too” The conclusion left him with an intense chill of fear. “With no idea how to return.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! More to come this weekend.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter time! I, maybe, sneakily upped the overall chapters by 2. These boys got long-winded.

It was strange seeing someone be so proficient in a skill Tony’d never seen before, let alone understood. But here he was, watching Anthony Stark, Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, in all his finery. With a raised stick--his wand, a real life, functional magic wand--books orbited around him, pages turning with each wave. On the desk were maps of astrological planes he’d never seen before and every so often he shouted,  _ Accio! _ and an object went flying across the room and into his hand.

It struck Tony that this must be what he must look like in the workshop. It was a dance he knew, even if it was in a whole new genre and style.

“I knew this position was cursed,” Anthony mumbled under his breath. “But I had no idea it would lead to this.”

“Are curses real in this univ--? Of course they are.”

Anthony looked at him over his tomb sized book with a smirk that looked eerily familiar. “They are but in this case the more appropriate term would be superstitious. It dates back to the days of that ring's owner, and I  _ thought _ it’d been long broken.”

“Aw,” Tony pouted, the other him just rolling his eyes obviously familiar with the expression. “Am I all that bad?”

“Definitely  _ not  _ as bad as You-Know-Who.”

“You-Know-What?”

Anthony shook his head. “It’s hard to forget there exists a place that has never heard the name Lord Voldemort.”

“Well, have you heard of Doom or Kree or Loki, Son of Odin?”

“The Norse god? Is he real on your plane?”

“Unfortunately,” Tony replied. “Though he does have better villain banter than most. Did your Lord Has-No-Name banter?”

Anthony snorted. “Decidedly not, from most accounts. I was just a teen when the war started. Barely got involved.”

“Explains your fascination with the ring.”

“Pardon?”

“Usually those that experienced the war want nothing to do with their artifacts. Steve can’t understand all the WW2 fans.”

“Steve...You’ve mentioned that name a few times now. Is he...Does he…” Anthony lowered his wand and all the books lowered onto the desks with it with a soft grace. “That wouldn’t happen to be Steve Rogers, would it?”

Tony straightened. “He’s here too?” A whole other Steve. He wished more than anything Steve was with him right now just to see the flummoxed expression on his gorgeous face. “What are the odds? I guess that’s a point for the meant-to-be theory, huh?” Tony asked, but Anthony appeared shocked. Not at all like he was commiserating with Tony about their relationship with Steve.

“Meant-to--?”

“Ignore me!” Tony cleared his throat but Anthony was as shrewd as he was, and by the look on his face, he wasn’t going to drop this. Tony sighed. “In my ‘verse, we’ve been dating for over a year.”

The fact seemed to shock Anthony, cut his strings so he fell to a nearby chair like a marionette. 

“I hope I didn't just out you to...you?”

Anthony let out a high pitched, airy laugh. “I did undergo puberty. And I have eyes.”

“So, the fine Mr. Rogers has inspired get-under-his-cape feelings for you?”

“Cape? Oh you mean my professorial robes. No, well, no, no. As the Flying Instructor he’s more into leather shoulder and thigh pads.”

“Thigh pads.” He imagined his own Steve in something like that. “Sounds hot.”

“Actually they’re quite airy--Oh. You mean…”

Tony laughed, this time let it drench with commiseration, then pointed to Anthony. “I know my own pining face. Have you told him yet?”

Anthony shook his head, running his hand along the edge of one of the books he’d been using for research. “We became acquainted at the beginning of last term.” His eyes took on a far away haze as he stared off in the distance, that Tony knew Anthony had no control over the look. 

“So formal,” Tony teased. “Did you tip your bowler hats at each other next?” 

Anthony pressed his lips together, trying not to let his expression break into a smile. “We actually started to duel.”

It was at that moment that Tony felt a true kinship to that man that wore his face. “Now that sounds like me and my Steve.”

“Did he  _ also  _ think you had the unique and charming mix of ego and arrogance?”

“Why yes, yes he did.” Tony remembered the spark of anger and how it festered under his skin, made him on high alert every time Steve walked into a room, bristle at every comment he made, and late at night when Steve was a floor below him in a the tower, he’d imagine getting up in his face the next time they argued, shocking him into silence with the fierce, fast, and thorough kiss.

“I see you were similarly affected.” Anthony smirked. Then he waved his wand and the room cleared and cleaned itself. “He’d heard of my accomplishments. I reformed the use of  _ Lumos _ in a way that changed a generation,” Anthony explained offhandedly, and Tony nodded like he understood--which was a discomforting situation since he imagined it was how people felt when he explained the arc reactor technology. “And I maybe used to own the Quidditch team that held a longstanding rivalry to the one he’d been the headline star of. One thing led to another and--”

“--Fireworks,” Tony finished.

“Duel,” Anthony said at the same time. 

“You say tomato, I say…” Tony waited for Anthony to finish.

“You want lunch?”

Tony laughed, shaking his head. “Nevermind. So, tell me. Now? How is it between you and Steve?”

A feeling shuddered across Anthony’s face. “Cordial.” 

Tony hummed. He could see the longing in Anthony’s face, and he wanted to do something to help. And, while this cross-universe-meet-cute was fun, he did have the persistent sensation in the back of his mind that he needed to find a way back to his own world. Something that connected him, connected the worlds. There was Tony, and Steve, and if the ring had brought him here, maybe something from his world ended up in this one. He suggested it to Anthony and he tried to think of anything, but he couldn’t. 

“Maybe...Do you think--Steve. Maybe he knows something?”

Tony smiled. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

Anthony matched his grin with his own. “Considering everything, I find that rather unsurprising.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More to come this week!


	4. Chapter 4

The hallways were empty as they walked through them and when Tony commented on it, Anthony shook his head. “They’re all at Hogsmeade right now. Or outside in the Quidditch pitch--Steve sometimes holds practice matches over the weekends.”

“I understood about three of those words but at least we don’t need to worry about someone asking why there are two of us.”

Anthony turned back to him and pulled his wand out, aiming it right at his forehead. 

“Whoa!” Tony took a step back and hit the stone wall.

“That’s a very good point, Mr. Stark.”

Tony narrowed his eyes at the wand that had not lowered. “Why...thank you...Professor Stark?”

Anthony smirked and said two words of Latin origin before Tony felt his whole face tingle. 

“What did you just do?” Tony touched his face, none of it felt familiar, making panic rise in his throat. 

“No need to worry.” Anthony waved away his concern with his non-wand holding hand. “Simple concealment charm.”

The panic did not recede. “You spelled my beautiful face!”

“ _Our_ beautiful face will return to you when the spell wears off or when I end it.” 

“You just performed nonconsensual magic on me.” Tony felt like his jaw had been permanently open since he landed in this world; he once again snapped it shut. “Now you’re laughing.” A bubble of crazed laughter built in his own chest. “I hope you at least changed me into someone hot.”

Anthony dropped his wand and stepped back, tilting his head in assessment. “Rather dashing, actually.”

“Well that's reassuring. Have I mentioned how much I like that accent on us?” 

“You just like my pretty words.”

Tony kicked himself away from the wall and headed down the path they’d been walking before he’d been spelled. “You’re the one blushing from my accent compliment.” 

Anthony rolled his eyes, and Tony chuckled at the familiar expression. “Let’s go find Professor Rogers.”

“That brings back that one time Steve and I roleplayed---”

“Turn right,” Anthony interrupted. “And please stop. We’re about to see this man, well at least my version of him.”

“You’ve thought about it, haven’t you?”

“Of course I’ve thought about it.” Anthony groaned, then picked up his pace, striding ahead of Tony and leading him out a side door into a courtyard. “Have you _seen_ him?”

“Sounds like I’ve seen rather more of him than you.” 

“Please stop,” Anthony pleaded. “We’re about to face him.”

“Well actually only one of us is meeting him face-to-face.” Tony beamed.

They navigated from the courtyard to a large field. “This is penance. Karma. For everyone I’ve ever sassed.”

“People love our sass.”

“Professor Rogers is not one of those people.”

“See that’s what I used to think too--”

“Professor Stark,” a voice greeted from the hut Tony had barely registered as they were passing by. A very familiar voice. He turned, and Steve stepped out into the sun. He was wearing a billowy cotton shirt with tight pants that reminded Tony of breeches. He had on thigh pads, arm pads, and held a helmet under his arm. With cheeks flushed red and hair damp, it was more than obvious he’d been playing some sort of sport. He looked gorgeous. Tony felt his mouth go dry. “Rare to see you out here,” he observed without hostility, only neutral curiosity, though Tony thought he saw animosity flicker when his gaze trailed over to Tony. “And your….friend?”

“Michael. He’s in Scotland for...a photoshoot and came by to visit. We go back to primary school.”

“Ah,” Steve replied, voice tight. “A model. That makes sen--Showing him around the grounds?” Steve--Professor Rogers, the _flying_ instructor--pressed his lips together. Tony knew that expression, even if it was clear Anthony did not: Steve was jealous. 

“Yup. He was interested in flying and I thought…” Anthony trailed off, apparently unsure where his sentence would end.

Steve, so like his own, seemed to want to help him out and filled in the blanks. “I can show him the Quidditch pitch. Let me just take a quick shower--” Tony wondered if he imagined all three of their faces turning a shade redder “--and you guys can wait right inside.” 

They followed him into the hut, and Tony staggered, momentarily stunned at how much bigger it appeared on the inside. Anthony seemed to sense his surprise and kicked him on the back of the calf to keep moving. “Remember you’re supposed to know about magic,” he hissed in Tony’s ear. 

Tony shook his head and tried to keep his awe at bay. “Thank you for the tour,” he said, trying to sound natural.

“Not a problem,” Professor Rogers said, sending him a Steve Rogers watt smile. “I’ll be right back.”

Tony looked around the entryway of the hut. Inside, it looked like any other recreational room. There was a desk and office in the far end by the doorway Steve had walked through that presumably led to showers and a locker room. “Why doesn’t he spell himself clean?” Tony asked as he walked over to hanging sports equipment - brooms, different sized balls. 

“Some people don’t feel clean without the assistance of water.”

“Fascinating,” Tony said, more focused on the pads and mats leaning against the wall than Anthony’s reply. His eye hit a bit of metal shining in the light and between two mats was the metal curve of a shield. It wasn’t painted but it had the same spherical indentions, the same star in the middle. 

The Shield. 

“Anthony,” Tony called. “I think I found something.”

He heard the rustling of his cape, not wanting to take his eyes off his ticket home. “This metal circle?”

“It’s a shield. Steve--my Steve--it’s his weapon of choice. Here it looks to be….”

“Quidditch. They use it to practice with the bludgeons.”

“Right…”

“You’re going to need to improve your pretending for when Steve returns.”

Tony sighed. “Not really the point Anthony. The point is, now that we found it, how do we get Steve to bleed on it.” 

“I haven’t a clue, but we need Steve to see and--”

“See what?” the man in question cut in, making Tony and Anthony stutter apart. Steve narrowed his gaze. “This doesn’t look suspicious at all.” He crossed his arms over his chest and clad only in a white cotton shirt and a pair of loose cotton pants, he looked more like his Steve than Tony had the ability to process. 

“We should tell him,” Tony blurted out.

Anthony shushed him from between his teeth, which swung Professor Rogers’ suspicious gaze onto him. “Are you two...together?” 

Tony barked out a laugh while Anthony turned beet red.

“That’s what this is, isn’t it? You two were looking for a private place, ran into me, and now you’re looking for a way out to...canoodle.”

“Canoodle!” Tony laughed. 

“It isn’t like that at all,” Anthony assured quickly; it was more than obvious that he didn’t want Professor Rogers thinking they were involved. After an awkward moment of silence, Anthony pulled out his wand and aimed it at Tony, who froze under it. Steve seemed surprised but not overly concerned. _“Finite Incantatem!”_

Tony’s cheeks lit up with tingles that spread to his forehead and chin. It took a second for the sensation to clear, and he knew by Steve’s reaction when he wore his own face again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading!


	5. Chapter 5

“Professor Stark--Anthony!” Professor Rogers shouted, voice airy with disbelief and a note of fear. “Why are there two of you? What did you do?”

“Why do you always think I’ve done something!?” The accusation painted annoyance all over Anthony’s face. They were like a match ready to strike and light into spark at any moment. It was a familiar antagonism, one Tony really wished they’d resolve the way he and Steve had: by pushing each other against an alley wall after shawarma. 

But there didn’t seem to be any shawarma joints around here, or any Chitauri invaders. 

“ _Obviously_ you’ve done something. There are two of you Anthony. Two. Please tell me this is a simple doppelganger spell and not an actual clone or anything. You told me about that muggle science technology--I can’t believe you’d--”

That piqued Tony’s interest. “You know about--?”

“He’s from a different universe!” Anthony shouted and the rest of the room went quiet. “God you’re infuriating, how we ever managed to get together in _his_ universe is beyond me.” Anthony threw his hands up in the air. 

That was what finally made Professor Rogers’ gaze whip away from Tony’s for the first time since his face was revealed. Tony watched Steve’s pale face turn a deep shade of red, sputtering as he tried to find his words. “What are you--What did you say? I can’t--I’m not--We’re not--” His eyes widened in panic. 

The humor left Tony in an instant. “Are you not out--?” Tony was having an odd sense of deja vu. 

“What I do in private is neither of your concerns.”

“It could be,” Tony couldn't resist muttering under his breath, and he wished he had more self-control than he did when both of their accusatory glares pinned him to the spot. “Anyway! Yes, Anthony is right, I am a lost multiverse traveller, shot here through a soul piece and looking for something to shoot me back to my reality.”

“Soul piece?”

“Horcrux,” Anthony provided. 

“How in the name of--”

“It’s returned now,” Anthony assured. “It’s in my office, for now, and back to the headmaster after we resolve…” He waved his hand towards Tony.

“So you came to me because I exist in his world too?”

“Quick study, Cap.” Tony grinned, enjoying Steve’s narrowed gaze. “I mean, Professor.” Tony ignored what the honorific elicited in the naughtier sides of his mind and made himself focus. “I’d hoped there’d be something around here that belonged to my world, to create a link. And there was.”

Steve barely looked like he could get past the fact that there were two Tonys, let alone grasp that there was something that connected their worlds in his flying equipment hut. He kept flicking his gaze between the two of them and Tony would have given up a significant part of his very large fortune to read this Steve’s mind right now. With his brow furrowing and his neck flushing red, Tony wondered if the thoughts were turning to the many, _many_ possibilities that existed with the three of them in an enclosed space. 

Even if the two of them weren’t like that. Yet.

“Come here, Professor.” Tony led him over to the stacked mats, pulling them apart to reveal the unpainted shield. 

“My bludgeon guard?”

“....sure,” Tony replied. “In my world, my Steve uses it as a shield.” Tony may have imagined Professor Rogers’ breath catching at the word _my_ but he didn’t think so. 

“And you think this guard can get you home?”

“That’s the idea, Professor. Have a shield just like it back home. ”

“What do we need to do?”

Tony eyed a broom hanging against the far wall, then glanced back at Steve. Now that he had a way back, he realized there were a few things he needed to do before he left.

“So when you say flying broomsticks….”

Behind him Anthony chuckled. “Can’t resist playing tourist?”

Tony looked over his shoulder and winked. Anthony winked back. Steve cleared his throat and blushed. “I--I can show you around,” he stammered. “If you’d like.”

Tony smiled. “Sounds good to me.”

Anthony walked over to the wall and pulled two brooms off their hooks. He handed the longer of the two to Steve and kept the other one for himself, then they headed outside. They walked a bit away from the hut, heading for the forest that surrounded the grounds. A large field appeared before they met the treeline, it was next to an even larger field that was surrounded by stadium seating and had goal posts at either end. The field was empty, a wide open space that must be used for training. 

They came to a stop and Anthony swung his broom between his legs and took off like a rocket, up into the air, nearly vertical. It reminded Tony of when he blasted off with the Iron Man armor, leaving nothing but the kickback of air in his wake. 

“Always putting on a show,” Steve mumbled under his breath, barely loud enough for Tony to hear it, but he did it with affection laced between the words. 

“I guess making an impressive exit is a genetic trait.” Tony laughed and watched Anthony fly a figure eight in the sky. When he looked back at Steve, his eyes were still on Anthony, admiring but also assessing. The expression reminded Tony so fiercely of his Steve that in that moment, he almost wanted to call this whole thing off and find the shield and get back to him right away. But then the admiring in Steve’s expression tightened into pining, before slipping behind a blank expression and focusing on Tony, and Tony felt like staying had been the right idea. 

“Ready to learn how to fly?” Steve asked. 

“I don’t think I’ll be as good as--” Tony gestured upward, wanting to keep the focus on Anthony, to see that focus play across Steve’s face. 

With only a tiniest reference to the man, Steve’s face broke into a bright smile. “Don’t tell him I told you this, because he already teases me about it, but his turns are even smoother than mine, you should see--There. How he leaned into the arc of the curve. When we get up there, that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

“Did you teach him too?”

“Anthony?” Steve laughed, surprised. “Of course not, he’s been flying since he was a child. Oh!” Steve blushed, looking embarrassed. “I forgot you aren’t from around here.”

Tony waved him off. “I am not. For one thing in my universe I can only fly with an armored suit.”

Steve’s eyes widened. “That sounds difficult.”

Tony laughed. “The building is harder than the flying, but equally as enjoyable.”

“So you’re both geniuses then.” Steve looked back up towards Anthony. “Don’t tell him I called him that either.”

“You sure do compliment him behind his back a lot.” Tony let the comment hang in the air for a moment, watched as it flushed Steve’s cheeks. 

“We have a complicated relationship.”

Tony snorted. “That's how me and my Steve started off too.”

Anthony zipped across the sky, his laughter following like a howling wind. 

“How’d you end up?” Steve was looking at him now, the intensity of his gaze almost a physical weight.

Tony met it. “In bed. Well, first up against an alley wall, and then a date at an art museum, and _then_ in bed. Followed shortly by a loving relationship going strong for years now.”

Steve opened his mouth, then closed it again. He pressed his lips together, almost pointedly not looking towards the sky. When he finally spoke, it was tight, strained. “I guess there’s similarities and differences, between both worlds.”

Silence hung in the air. 

“That’s a very diplomatic answer, Professor.”

“And none of it will help get you in the air.” It was a rough change of subject, but Tony let it slide.

“So.” Tony clapped his hands together. “I guess the first thing I do is mount it--” he wiggled his eyebrows together “--isn’t that right?”

Steve snorted. “Yes. The first thing we do is put the stick between our legs.”

Tony froze, jaw almost dropping. “Kudos for the deadpanned sass. I like you. You should ask the other me out.” And before Steve could stutter a reply, he pulled the broom from his hands and swung a leg over it. “What next?”

Steve shook his head before replying, as if he had to physically remove the thoughts Tony had placed there. Tony smirked and made a crude gesture with his hand wrapped around the broomstick until Steve cracked a smile. “Just as inappropriate, too,” Steve noted.

“You wouldn’t have us any other way.” 

“So you say,” Steve replied before sliding onto the broom in front of Tony. "First few rides we'll do in tandem. Now, up!” he shouted, before Tony really had a grip on what was happening. The ground under him slipped away as they hovered, just an inch, over the ground. 

Tony yelped, hands tightening around the broom. 

“I can keep you close to the ground, if you want.”

Tony heard the challenge in Steve’s suggestion, and Tony forced himself to loosen his grip. “This isn’t my first time shooting across the sky. Lead the way, Professor.”

Steve smirked over his shoulder and kicked off. The broom pointed toward the clouds and they were off. Tony’s stomach dropped as they shot up, the wind hitting his face an entirely new sensation. But flying, he knew, and the joy of it built until he bellowed out a shout. 

The wind shifted when Anthony pulled up next to them wearing a wide smile and eyes just for Steve. They spent the afternoon criss-crossing on broomsticks across the sky. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! More to come soon!


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Update Day!

The wizards landed for the last time as the sun tilted towards the western horizon, but Tony couldn’t bring himself to put his feet on the ground just yet. He corkscrewed in the air then tilted down into a freefall, stopping a few feet above the ground. 

“Not bad work at teaching him, professor,” Anthony commented from his spot, sitting on the grass next to said professor. 

The two wizards had stopped flying hours ago, not nearly as eager as Tony, once he got on a broom by himself. He did a loop in the air then came to hover near them. “I’m just a natural.”

“I won’t argue there,” Anthony agreed.

“Genius strategic mind.” Tony mock-saluted Anthony. 

Steve shook his head, looking between the two of them, a faint blush returning when he took them both in at the same time, like he couldn’t handle that much Stark at once but he was still pleased to to watch them banter back and forth. Tony noticed how close Steve sat next to Anthony, how their hands pressed into the same blades of grass. They’d been talking for hours with not a duel in sight. Tony hated to interrupt them, hated to end his time in the sky. But he’d been gone long enough; he had his own Steve waiting.

“Hey, prof.” Steve quirked an eyebrow at the abbreviation. “I mastered flying into a death drop, but I’m still not sure about landing. Think you can walk me through it?”

“Teach you something about flying? Yeah, I can do that all day, son.”

He sounded so much like his own Steve, had since they met, so similar that Tony barely questioned it. “You sure you didn’t come here through the portal too?”

“I came here on an airplane, because flooing from New York City to Hogsmeade isn’t worth the headache.” 

“Well show me your stuff, America.” 

Steve laughed as he stood and Anthony followed, their long professorial cloaks draping behind them as they moved; they still stood so close. Tony followed Steve’s instructions, bearing down his weight, gently, gently until his feet could reach the ground. When they walked back to the flying hut, Tony purposefully fell behind, letting the two professors walk side by side. They looked good together, even from behind, and he felt another yearning pang for his Steve, wanted to slip their palms together, feel Steve’s larger one wrap around his own, know that his arms were there, waiting and warm, if Tony should want to slip between him. How he wanted his Steve, but as he walked behind this Steve and this Anthony, he knew a little pining was worth being here, helping these two knuckleheads find each other beyond the bolster and bumbling. 

But it was time to go home.

When they got back to the hut, Tony went straight for the shield, pulling it out and laying it against the wall. The three of them stared at it for a moment before Steve stepped forward, pulling out his wand. He looked up at Tony. “How much blood does it need?”

“Not much at all, mine was barely more than a prick of my thumb.”

“Okay,” he replied, then turned his wand to his thumb and mumbled something in Latin that Tony could barely hear. He didn’t hiss, but he pressed his lips together against what must have been sharp pain, and Anthony took an aborted step towards him at the sound. Steve lifted his gaze and caught Anthony’s, sending him a reassuring half-smile.

Suddenly Tony felt like he was the witness of a much more intimate moment than the one that was happening in front of him. It was obvious that something between them had shifted, from weary long-distance pining, to a mutual understanding that was anything but tame; sparks flew through their connected gaze. 

A moment passed, then another. Tony considered clearing his throat but right before he gave into the urge, a bead of blood from Steve's finger stole everyone's attention. They all watched in silence as Steve raised his thumb over the shield and let the drop of blood fall through the air. It landed with a soft  _ thop _ and another bead followed. A moment passed, then another.

Nothing happened. Steve flicked his gaze towards Anthony then to Tony, who shook his head, able to read the question they were both asking: No, this wasn’t how it happened before. His stomach dropped, Steve’s--his Steve’s--smiling face flashed through his mind inexplicably, the last time he’d seen that fond exasperation as he sauntered towards the workshop with the ring that led him here. He’d been so focused, so curious, he hadn’t stopped to consider the possibility that this was a one way trip.

Steve flashed in his mind again, this time in their bed, sleeping peacefully, completely unaware that Tony was lost in the multiverse, gone. Possibly forever. 

His knees buckled from under him and Anthony was at his side in an instant, acting as a crutch, offering reassurances he could barely hear. They ushered him across the hut to Steve’s desk, forcing him to sit in the chair. As soon as he was down, he shot back up, needing to pace, needing to think through this problem. An object from this universe brought him here. An object from his universe--Tony mentally glared at the shield--should bring him back. 

The shield. 

It leaned against the wall, a brass circle with a star in the middle, completely unpainted

Unpainted. Not the red, white and blue from back home. This shield wasn’t that shield. This shield wasn’t from his world, it just looked exactly like the shield that was. “Fuck.”

“What?” they both asked at the same time, then stared at each other with fierce faces flushing, just from asking the same obvious question at the same damn time.They didn’t have to be so adorably ridiculous in his hour of need. But, fine. Anthony looked completely besotted, so he’d cut them some slack in the name of genetic loyalty. 

Instead of teasing them until they kissed just to make Tony shut up, Tony explained, “This object won’t connect me to my universe. I thought it would because it looked like Steve--my Steve’s--shield. But it only looked like it. It’s not it. Not like the ring was this Voldemort fellow’s. It’s not the same. I need something from my earth, born and raised, to make the connection. Something that doesn’t  _ belong _ here, not just something similar.” 

Both their expressions turned calculating, thoughtful. “Something out of this world?” Steve asked after a moment.

“Yup,” Tony replied. “That’d be our big ticket item.”

Steve hummed. “I saw something that made me think those exact words just a few days ago. Grab some broomsticks and follow me.” 

A jolt of hope sparked Tony into a familiar action, following Steve. “Aye, aye Captain.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! More to come soon.


	7. Chapter 7

They took off together in a V-shaped formation, Tony’s heart immediately rushing with adrenaline, making his heart race. Flying like this felt even more freeing than in the armor, the wind hitting his bare skin, every slight turn taking him to a new direction. He missed his armor, he loved his armor, but flying on a broomstick was quickly becoming something he knew he’d forever miss, once he left this world. 

If he left this world.

The somber thought made his stomach plummet back down to the earth that was quickly falling away. Suddenly, it felt like a mission. He looked over at Anthony, then at Steve, waiting for command.

“Follow me,” Steve shouted, so eerily familiar. “It isn’t far.”

They flew over the forest that Tony had woken up in, but he quickly realized that he’d been on the very edge of it and they were now making their way into the dense center with every minute that passed. Steve seemed to know where he was going, though, as he led them to where the forest rose up into a grand mountain, then between two peaks and into a wide open valley. Even with the growing chill, Tony felt the sudden desire to break from their formation and corkscrew through the air, taking in the view; but he resisted. A good thing too because it wasn’t long before Steve pulled the tip of his broom up into a stop. Anthony followed, and Tony did his best but couldn’t actually stop until he was a few yards higher in the sky then them. Anthony was definitely snickering at him when the two of them rose to meet him.

Steve smirked as he lifted his fist to signal their attention then pointed down to the ground. With two fingers he gestured down then back to Anthony and Tony, who nodded together. Something about it made Steve blush fiercely and shake his head, but before Tony had time to tease him about it or to ask him what delicious mental picture he was conjuring, the Flying Instructor was pushing his broom handle downward towards the trees. 

“Odd…” Anthony said, probably to himself.

“Bet he was imagining the two of us following very different kinds of orders.” 

Now Anthony’s face was red too. “I highly doubt that.”

“Do you?” Tony asked around a smile before shooting down to follow Steve and leaving Anthony sputtering in his wake. 

Steve was hovering at the top of the tree canopy, and as Tony got closer he saw light glinting against bright blue. “Over there,” Steve shouted. Anthony appeared next to Steve and then the three of them lowered to the ground. As they broke through the trees, the blue light only got brighter and they landed close to its source. It was a gemstone. Tony knew right away that it was the one that had lured Loki to Earth and almost led to the end of the world. A thousand questions rushed through his mind but his counterpart beat him to it. 

“When did you come across this object, Professor Rogers? As the Defense Against Dark Arts Professor, you should’ve reported it to me immediately.”

Steve snorted. “If I reported to you all the odd things I’ve found in this forest, I’d never leave your office.”

Anthony pressed his lips together and tried to clear his throat at the same time. “Well.” His brow furrowed, momentarily thrown but he managed to find himself after a moment, finger coming up to point at Steve. “A bright blue stone, completely at odds with the rest of the forest, seems rather noteworthy!”

“Hindsight’s twenty-twenty,” Tony cut in, his stomach sinking as he approached the source of the familiar blue, the light still obscuring its shape but he was certain it was a gemstone. “Now that we’re here, I definitely know that this stone belongs to my world. I’ve seen it before.”

“You don’t seem especially happy about that fact,” Anthony observed.

“Right now, I’m thinking that it’d be smarter to leave this stone right here in the forest floor, lost forever in this ‘verse, away from the rest of its set.” Tony swallowed around the horrible truth. “Except that stone is also my only ticket home, if I’ve figured this out correctly--”

“If you’re anything like Professor Stark, you have,” Steve said, the compliment offhand, but Tony looked towards Anthony just to see the pleased surprise he knew he’d find on his face. It was there, astonished wide eyes and lips opening and closing with nothing to say. Tony wondered if his Steve’s initial advances on himself had left him looking as gobsmacked. Probably. If he was prone to embarrassment, maybe he’d feel it now, but it was hard to muster up any when it all led to him and Steve getting together in the end. 

This-Steve stepped forward, drawing Tony’s attention back to the gemstone he’d hoped he’d never see again. “So you’re saying I need to bleed on it to create a connection with the me in your universe--”

Scattering from the trees cut their conversation short. “What was that?” Tony hissed.

“Sounded like a light footed creature,” Anthony supplied. “Probably not a centaur or thestrals. A giant would be more than obvious--”

“Giant!?” Tony felt his eyebrows fly high.

“I saw some unicorn droppings in this valley once, but they are much too skittish,” Steve offered.

“Unicorns?!” Maybe they were hazing him…

“ _ Not _ unicorns,” Anthony shouted, voice tight and wand raising. Tony whipped around to see an entirely too large spider emerging from the trees, fast and determined with a handful of others on its many heels. “A family of Acromantulas!  _ Petrificus Totalus! _ ” 

One of the humongous spiders froze mid jump and tumbled to the ground. The others screamed, screeching high pierced noises and even more crawled through the trees and into their clearing. 

“Guessing they are not friendly,” Tony managed.

“Some are,” Steve replied. "These don't seem to be.  _ Protego!” _ A shield shot in front of Tony, repelling the spider nearest him far back into the trees. 

“Thanks!” Tony shouted, eyes scanning the forest. He needed a weapon, and all he had was a broomstick. The magical shield fell right before Steve shot a spell at three other spiders. Tony flipped the broomstick around and wielded it like a bat. “Take that!” he shouted, swinging it at the spider’s heavy center. It shuffled back and advanced again. “Is there a spell to turn this broom into a laser beam? Or maybe a gun?”

Anthony turned away from another advancing spider and shot a spell towards his head. “Watch it, Steve!”

“What happened to 'Professor Rogers'-- _ Arania Exumai!”  _ The spider near Steve went flying. Three more advanced, and this time when Tony swung his broom at the one closest to him, it lifted into the air and landed far back into the forest. Both Steve and Anthony followed with a wicked series of spells. 

“You know, I’m pretty sold on this magic thing,” Tony admitted. He swung the broom again and two more flew, the rush of the battle running through his veins as he, Anthony, and Steve brought their backs together at the center of the clearing, the two of them with their wands out and Tony with his broom. After the initial wave of spiders, there was a lull. Tony took a few heavy breaths feeling Anthony and Steve at his back, the silence was eerie, intentional, and brief, before the scattering footsteps started again.

“Here we go again,” Steve mumbled under his breath.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been in the field,” Anthony said, lifting his wand high over his head and casting another spell. 

“Constant vigilance.” Steve’s words sounded practiced, as if they were a quote but there was an obvious hint of protectiveness adding force to the words. 

Anthony shot him a wink. “I might be dusty, but I’m never sloppy,” he countered with a smirk before executing an impressive spin and landing another spell on the spider that lunged forward at him. 

Tony watched Steve watching Anthony, a wide smile plastered across his besotted face. “Showboating?” Steve teased. 

“If it gets the job done.” Anthony knocked their shoulders together and Steve flushed, spelling off the nearest spider without a second glance. 

“Boys? Flirt later. I’m still standing out here with nothing more than a broomstick,” Tony quipped as two spiders advanced on him. A sharp pincher shot out and Tony dodged, spun away from one then another one, and he could hear the sounds of spells and the sparks as they landed on each enormous arachnids. It took a few more swings of the broom and spells from the wizards before the second wave cleared. 

Another silence fell in the forest, this one lighter, the only thing remaining were their heaving breaths. After a moment, a stray bird started to chirp and the forest seemed to settle to normal. “I think that’s the last of them,” Anthony said, still not lowering his wand. 

Tony huffed. “Well that was fun. Let’s never do it again.” 

Anthony chuckled; Steve’s focus was on Anthony. “You okay?” 

Anthony looked down at his arms and legs like he was checking to see if he’d missed a wound, then nodded. “Me? What about you? I’m the one trained in Dark Arts, not quidditch.”

Tony knew that a tease like that could’ve ended up in an argument, probably would’ve not so long as ago. But this time Steve smiled wide. “Thought you’d forgotten your skills, at first.”

Anthony barked out a laugh and shook his head. “I’d never.” He winked at Steve again before walking over to the stone, keeping his distance as he crouched down, analyzing. “It seems we weren’t the only ones attracted to this glowing gemstone. Large, powerful objects generally tend to draw out magical creatures.”

“Large, powerful, magical creatures.” Tony looked over at the huge corpse of one of the spiders. 

“Large,” Steve agreed. “But manageable.”

“Because there were three of us,” Anthony pointed out. “One of us alone would have been overrun.” 

“Well, isn’t that a pleasant mental image?” Tony grimaced, but he turned away from the spiders, his focus shifting to the familiar blue light emanating from the stone. It had a hum of residual energy, so similar to the ring, pulling Tony closer. “The harder the battle, the sweeter the victory,” he whispered to himself, remembering New York, the hole into space and everything else that had followed. The gemstone seemed so harmless, lying on the forest floor. Tony knew differently. And now, here in this magical world, it was his only hope to return back to New York. Back to his Steve.

He turned to Anthony and Steve with a pasted on smile. “Let’s pack it up here, boys. Broomsticks away time. This is exactly what we’ve been looking for.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The final chapter is here! It came out to be about double the size of a usual chapter so...Oops! :D 
> 
> Thank you so much for coming along on this journey with Tony, and thank you so much ferret for betaing along the way.

The gemstone hovered, floating next to them as they flew back over the forest towards the castle and the hut. Tony wondered if he was imagining the heat that radiated from the stone, the hum so like the ring. There was a connection between the stone and this world, like there had been between the ring and Tony’s. He wanted to tinker, just like he’d wanted to do back in his workshop, but more than anything he wanted to return home. To Steve.

They were silent as they landed, the stone following them into the hut. He had Anthony lower it onto the desk, knew that he’d have to have Steve bleed on it soon. He only hesitated because this was his last chance, if this didn’t work...

Steve flicked his wand at the stone like it wasn’t a ticking time bomb. He caught Tony’s gaze and nodded reassuringly. “This is going to work, Tony.”

“You sound so sure.”

Steve smiled. “Well, of course I am. We have the brilliant mind of not one but two Starks behind us.”

He was trying to make Tony feel better, it was obvious and so like his Steve it made his chest ache. “Kinky,” he said offhand because it felt expected of him, easy, something to focus on instead of Steve lowering the stone on his desk. This was it, his final chance to get home. He took a deep breath. “When your blood hits the stone--What happened for me was that a beam, a portal, shot from the horcrux to me.”

Anthony stepped forward, face creased with concern. “Wait, you didn’t mention this last time.” His voice turned cold. “Are you telling me the stone is going to portal Steve--”

Tony shook his head, holding out a hand. “He’ll be fine, if my hypothesis is correct--”

“There’s no way you could know with any certainty--” Anthony stepped forward, narrowing his gaze. 

“Anthony--” Steve cut in.

“No. If I’d known this last time,” he began, tone firm, shaking his head at Steve. “Tony may be willing to risk that you could be sent back to his world, but I’m not--”

“Wait.” Steve turned towards Tony, hand hovering near his wand. “Is that true?”

Before he could even get a word out, Anthony cut him off. “The reason Tony can’t bleed on it himself is because there's already two of him here! So it’s easy to conclude what might happen if _you_ bleed on it! Now he wants to send you off--”

“If you’d let me speak!” Tony shouted, knowing it’d be a challenge to out-stubborn himself, instead he appealed to Steve. “He isn’t entirely incorrect. I honestly didn’t think about it until we were flying back over the forest. Jeez, give a guy some credit.” He glared at his counterpart. “I’m not in the business of ripping happy couples apart--” When neither of them blushed at his comment, both just continuing to glare at him, Tony noted that all it took was the light threat of accidental universe hopping for them to get over their bashful stage. “My plan is to move the stone’s beam, or portal, or whatever, away from Steve before it hits him in the gut. That should open the connection but create, well, a doorway, versus a one way hit to the chest to beam me up Scottie back to my Earth.”

Steve’s brow furrowed. 

Anthony exhaled through his teeth. “Ha! This is so, very me. You sure you weren’t just avoiding the chance we'd say no?”

Tony put his hands up. “It’s nothing like that! I hadn’t considered it before, I swear, and now I have. Blame it on the multiverse travel-induced concussion.” Agitation tightened his throat. He caught his counterpart’s gaze and let the truth of his words show. “You know I’d do anything to be with the ones I love, because you’d do the very same.” He held Anthony’s gaze until he nodded and then Tony continued, “But I will not, ever, hurt that man or any of his counterparts that may exist in any multiverse. You _know_ that, because in this we are the same.”

Footsteps shuffled forward, and Steve came to stand beside them both, where they were staring each other down. “Hey, so, do I get a say in this? Or is it a full-fledged Stark-off? Seems odd, considering _I’m_ the one at risk of getting pulled through space and time.”

Anthony swung his gaze from Tony to Steve. “You’re going to help him,” he spat. “Because that’s what you do.”

“Help people? You think so?” Steve asked with a cream-caught-the-canary smile. “That’s quite a change in tune, Professor.” 

Anthony turned red. “Now don’t you--Blast!--Fine! Okay! Fine. Risk yourself so he can return home. Who cares about the consequences?! Certainly not you! I’ll take a step back.” He did, one hand flexing near the inside pocket of his cloak, where Tony had learned he kept his wand. “I’ll just stand here and watch the third act unfold, don’t mind me.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “Oh, come off it. Trust me, okay. I know how important this man is--” Steve pressed his lips together and dropped his gaze away from the two Starks. Tony turned back to Anthony. “And, let’s be real here. We both know this isn’t our decision at all.” 

Steve’s attention was still on the floor of the hut, but he finally looked up when no one said anything after a moment. Steve tried to catch Anthony’s eye first, a tense pull across his forehead as if he was willing Anthony to look at him. It didn’t take long for Anthony to cave and when he did Steve’s face softened and he stepped closer. Tony knew, if this had been his Steve, he’d be reaching for Tony’s hands right now. This Steve bumped his shoulders against Anthony’s. “We all know that I’m going to help him.”

Anthony all but rolled his eyes. “Because you always have to be the hero? If it isn’t a death dive in the Quidditch World Cup, it’s--”

“Cause he’s you, Anthony.” Steve smiled, it was small but evidently satisfied that Anthony’s eyebrows flew up in surprise. “And as infuriating as you may be, I care about you.”

“You do? Oh. You do.”

Steve didn’t say anything, kept grinning like a loon at Anthony, and Tony really should be going soon but he really had zero intention or interest in breaking those two apart right now. 

Anthony swallowed. “I do, too.” 

Steve chuckled, low and fond. “Figured that out, maybe, from the dissertation you just delivered on my behalf. Which, thank you for. I do appreciate you defending my--if not my honor, then my existence?”

Anthony smirked, it looked to Tony like he was gathering his bearings from Steve’s confession. He sighed through the smirk. “Someone’s got to defend it, since you seem keen on throwing it away.” He knocked their shoulders together like Steve had before, and didn’t move away. Instead he looked at Tony, expression serious. “How sure are you about this?”

“Mathematically or gut feelingsy?”

“Nevermind.” He nodded towards Steve. “He’s got enough stubborn in him to take on two of us, anyway.”

“Truer words,” Tony agreed. He walked over to the desk where Steve had placed the stone, crouching so he was eye level. “When I bled on it, it didn’t open the portal immediately. I think it’d be best if you drop a bead on it and leave the hut right after. Both of you.” 

“Okay,” Steve agreed. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at his hand. “Whenever we’re ready.” 

Tony looked at Anthony, who nodded then back at Steve. “Ready?”

He whispered a spell and a small cut appeared, like it had over the false-shield. Tony held his breath as he watched the single bead of blood, his last chance, as it fell through the air until its _thop_ on the stone.

This time something happened immediately, a sizzling noise followed by a hum that lifted the hair on his arms, he shot a glance at Steve and Anthony and they were dashing across the hut as Tony lunged forward, grabbing the stone then hissing as the heat emanating from it burned his palms. 

“Fuck!” 

“What happened?” Anthony shouted as the stone clattered to the floor. “Where’s the portal?!”

“Soon! Very--I can’t direct it though. I thought I’d be able to turn it away from him but I can’t touch it at all. I need a way--”

“ _Wingardium Leviosa!”_ Anthony shouted and the stone lifted in the air. It looked like a struggle, his face pinching and arm shaking as he spun the stone right as a beam shot from its center, turning it away from Steve.

“Anthony!” Steve shouted as the hum morphed into a gust of wind, whipping the papers off Steve’s desk and rattling the broomsticks off the wall. The beam hit the other side of the hut, and Tony remembered how it felt slamming into his chest. There was a bang, but instead of blowing the hut in half, magic or expert craftsmanship held it in place. The beam left the blue stone entirely, forming a large circle that stood on its own at the far end of the hut. 

On the other side of that circle was his bedroom. Their bed was framed in the center of the circle with Steve twisted in the sheets, shirtless, just shifting out of sleep. He blinked awake, stretching, coming onto his elbows. Then it was like a flip was switched, he shuffled backwards and shouted, “Tony!”

“Hey, it’s okay--” he held his hand up, trying to stave off Steve’s panic. “I’m okay. About to be on my way home.”

“I thought you were in the workshop this whole time!” To Tony’s left Steve laughed and Anthony snorted, Tony turned his head to look at them. “Who's there?”

Tony gestured for them to come over, watched his Steve’s face flash with surprise when he took them in. 

“Tony...Where are you?”

“Somewhere magical.” He smirked.

“And you’re coming home _when?_ ” Steve asked, eyes still fixed on their counterparts. “Also, hi, wow, what a surprise! I mean, I’m sorry, where are my manners? It's a pleasure to meet you, if not a bit surprising. ”

Anthony snorted. “He’s as polite as you.”

“Tony!” his Steve shouted, pulling at the sheets. “You’re British!” Everyone but his Steve chuckled, he just sent Tony a confused expression. “Am I still dreaming?”

“I don’t know.” Tony smirked, stepping through the portal as casually as if he was walking through the doorway, wanting to have his Steve in his arms more than anything. When he was finally there, he placed a soft, cherishing kiss against his lips then pulled back. “Are you?”

“No. You’re just incredible. And ridiculous. And incredibly ridiculous.” 

They gazed back over at the portal where Anthony and Steve were still standing, now looking incredibly uncomfortable while also shooting each other side long glances. 

“They aren’t together,” Tony stage-whispered to Steve. 

Steve snorted. “Yet.” 

Their counterparts flushed, and Tony laughed, extricating himself from Steve’s arms to walk back over to the portal. “I guess this is where we part.”

“It was an honor to meet you both,” Steve the professor replied. 

“For us, too.” Tony gestured towards the bed, where his Steve had the sheet pulled up. He probably wasn’t wearing any pants either.

Anthony nodded. “This was a entirely surreal adventure.”

“Absolutely,” Tony agreed with a wink. “And hopefully educational.” 

“Tony!” Anthony hissed, but the Steve on the other side of the portal just laughed and shifted closer to Anthony. 

“What?” Tony asked, all innocent, as he walked back to the bed. “Till next time!” He gave his Steve another kiss before sending the portal a wave. 

“More kissing,” he heard Steve mumble with amusement.

Out of the corner of Tony’s gaze he saw Anthony’s face turn red. “How do we end the port--l?” 

His counterpart’s question cut out as Professor Rogers stepped forward. “Oh, why don’t we try--” He flicked his wand and sent the stone fumbling onto his bedroom carpet; their connection blinked out of space and time. 

“Can you hear me now?” Tony joked to himself, but he wasn’t by himself. Even across the universes, there was another him standing next to another Steve, well on their way to finding one another. He turned to face his Steve and smiled. He was home. 

_fin_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for reading! Feel free to come chat with me over on tumblr at ashes0909.tumblr.com or over on fandom Discords. If you liked this story, I do have a sequel currently in the planning stages, so keep a look out if you're interested!


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